![]() There was sexual harassment, gentrification, feminism, gay liberation, vigilanteism, cult religions, anti-nuke activism and more.īut it wasn't necessarily the plots, distinctive as they were, that set Barney Miller apart. Barney and wife Liz separated, then reconciled. Harris was a style maven and nascent yuppie, who'd write, then publish a novel based on his supposed police exploits. Wojo was a Vietnam vet who worried over exposure to Agent Orange. ![]() The show could be, but didn't have to be, topical. The show's storylines took advantage of everything the setting then offered, including financial crises, government cutbacks, infrastructure deterioration, and more. That teeming sea of humanity represents well the New York City in which Barney Miller took place, specifically around its (fictional) 12th Precinct in lower Manhattan. And they very often got both from Barney and his men, in ways neither they nor we might have expected. They wanted to be heard, as well as delivered of resolution, if not wisdom. Those visitors were never reluctant to speak their minds, pry or philosophize. They had varied perspectives on anything and everything, along with sundry reactions to the perps, victims and locals who came through the squadroom - which was, for most of Miller's eight seasons, the show's single set. Arrivals mid-series included laconic intellectual Dietrich (Steve Landesberg), who'd spout about every subject imaginable ("Semantics is my life"), along with overeager and height-challenged uniformed officer Levitt (Ron Carey), plus drop-in Inspector Lugar (James Gregory), forever hanging in Barney's office to babble about the old days. Along with middle-aged Jewish captain Barney - a level-headed dispenser of what one of the producers' bonus interviews calls "Talmudic justice" - there were initially excitable Puerto Rican detective Chano (Gregory Sierra), naive but soft-hearted Polish guy Wojo (Max Gail), slow-moving Japanese-American desk man Yemana (Jack Soo), black sophisticate Harris (Ron Glass), and weary almost-retired Fish (Abe Vigoda).įish would leave after a couple seasons for a self-titled spinoff sitcom - the entire first season of which Shout includes in this box! - along with fellow departure Chano. And it explored that diversity as it arose, without getting heavyhanded. It's commonplace now, but when Barney Miller premiered as a midseason series for ABC in early 1975, it had one of TV's first truly diverse ensembles. Shout knew this eight-season classic needed to be released complete, so fans could see how the show evolved, from a workplace/family sitcom centered on Hal Linden's NYPD detective captain, into a police ensemble gem that showcased the continuing parade of kooky citizens coming through the door, just as much as the core assortment of cops trying to deal with them. The smart series is owned by Sony (formerly Columbia), which released the first three seasons in sporadic fashion, then seemed to give up the ghost, before this legendary '70s-'80s comedy even really got good. Run, do not walk, to order one of TV's all-time most enduring comedies on DVD, released this week in a bonus-loaded complete series set.īarney Miller finally gets the treatment it deserves, from our friends at Shout! Factory, who know how to make pop culture milestones come alive.
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